Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg walk off The View

Meagan Morris is an entertainment and lifestyle journalist living in New York City. In addition to SheKnows, Morris contributes to many publications including The New York Times, Yahoo! News, PopEater, NBC New York and Spinner. Follow he...

"Listen to me"

Never one to shy away from controversy, O'Reilly gave his opinion on the proposed Islamic cultural center two blocks away from Ground Zero in lower Manhattan. The conservative pundit said President Obama's support of the center shows the divide between him and the rest of America.

"The mosque down here, it's inappropriate because a lot of the 9/11 families I know say 'hey, we don't want that,'" he said.

"Listen to me, because you'll learn," O'Reilly interrupted, surprising the audience. Behar tried to make light of his comments, creating bunny ears behind his head.

O'Reilly kept up with his argument, finally prompting the liberal co-hosts to walk off stage with a particularly cold assessment of Muslims.

"Muslims killed us on 9/11!" he yelled back.

"Oh my God!" Behar said in disbelief as she stood up from her seat. "I don't want to sit here now. I don't! I'm outraged by that statement."

And like that, the two hosts walked off stage as the audience applauded.

Barbara Walters: Not Happy

A visibly angered Walters strongly scolded her co-hosts after the loud applause ended.

"You have just seen what should not happen," Walters said, addressing the audience. "We should be able to have discussions without washing our hands, and screaming and walking offstage."

She also directed her wrath at O'Reilly. "You cannot take a whole religion and demean them because of what some [did]," she scolded.

A Half-Hearted Apology

Behar and Goldberg returned to the set after a commercial break.

For his part, O'Reilly offered his version of an apology.

"If anyone felt that I was demeaning all Muslims, I apologize."

The tense situation died down after the apology and the show resumed as normal. No word on what happened backstage after the show – something tells us Walters gave her co-hosts a terse warning. It is her show, after all.